The Real Problem Of Group Homes

January 24, 1990|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

This letter is written in response to the numerous articles appearing recently regarding zoning ordinances and group homes. A zoning battle is really only the first challenge facing group home providers today and, in comparison, a relatively minor one.

Having been a supervisor in residential services for more than six years, it is increasingly more apparent that recruiting and retaining staff will be impossible. Despite our continuous ads, the prospects grow dimmer. The idea of hiring experienced, higher educated staff was abandoned many years ago; the only requirement now is that the prospective employee care about helping others. But even people who care about others need to care about themselves and their families. They cannot afford to exist on a wage of $4.26 per hour.

Residential workers are not asking for much -- just a livable wage. The salaries of those employed in human services for the county are two to two-and-a-half times more than those employed by private agencies. I predict that this problem won't last much longer, however, because private residential agencies will fold as a direct result of severely inadequate wages.

Zoning ordinances will cease to be a problem, but homelessness and reinstitutionalization will be and many families will be forced to reassume responsibility for their mentally ill or mentally retarded family members.

One final note to those neighborhoods with the "Not in my backyard" syndrome, it's time to rethink your values. Our most vulnerable citizens have at the very minimum an equal right to live in safe neighborhoods and they have every right to experience as full and normal a life as possible.